Is there still no way to have “on demand” syncing on desktop (via ie. webdav)?
No, shallow sync is not supported in DEVONthink.
Why?
Its a feature I’m missing and have been for a while, thats all. The ‘on demand’ feature in DTTG is excellent. Too bad its not implemented into DT.
Why would you need it on a Mac? Drive space is cheap and easily expandable, not so on mobile.
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I disagree. It is not cheap and easy to add storage to a Macbook. In my particular use case, my DEVONthink library consist of plenty of items that I do not need on a regular basis. In general, there are plenty of reasons why digital asset management should have on demand features. Compare Dropbox and iClouds featureset. DTTGs implementation works perfectly. I’d like to see the same for mac over webdav.
External hard drives are inexpensive with capacities larger than your internal drive. What’s not easy about that?
Compare Dropbox and iClouds featureset.
Comparison isn’t validation. Just because a feature exists, that doesn’t mean it’s a great idea.
In general, there are plenty of reasons why digital asset management should have on demand features.
Such as?
- The premise of my request is based on features related to online syncing solutions — not physical solutions. You can also add external hardrives to ipads and iphones…
- I disagree. The smart sync functionality of Dropbox is excellent, and it would serve DT quite well in my opinion, especially given the fact (in DTTG with ‘on demand’) that you can search files not downloaded to the device. I did not intend to compare DT to ie. Dropbox in a 1:1 manner, but it does provide solutions that I think directly challenges DT on this topic. To be able to “archive” parts of your library intuitively (right-click > make offline) makes complete sense to me.
- Sharing; Flexible disk space management and selective storage based on needs; Making syncing of large databases faster; Not needing to purchase a myriad of external hardrives but have everything in one place (a home server, NAS/RAID etc) that you can access from all your devices; …
Thanks for the clarification.
Currently, there are no plans to add shallow sync to the Mac.
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Too bad. I hope it will be considered in the future; I love every other aspect of DT but this, and I assume that many more agree. That Im forced to keep my entire library with me at all times does not feel right. Especially when I never use more than about 20-30% my collection at any given point in time. But im not saying that is the most relevant factor for you guys to consider adding the feature — its just how I work with my database. I guess the most relevant factor should be demand/request, and if people are not asking for it I would not expect you to consider it. But if they do, and all you say are “buy external hard drives”, it comes across as dismissive rather than engaging with the actual need being expressed. What exactly is the argument against adding on demand/shallow sync to desktop? Would love to hear your/the devteams thoughts
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I for myself do not need it.
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Approximately 45% of the end-user documents on my desktop computer are inactive. They reside in databases, but those databases are not used regularly. Those databases are all “spotlight indexed”, so that if I need something, I can access it by simply searching in Finder, and double-clicking the “DEVONthink 3 Document” to open the enclosing database and access the document in DEVONthink. Personally, I consider it good working practice to not “clutter” my DEVONthink instance with open databases containing documents that have little immediate purpose for me.
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This sounds like the impetus for splitting a database IMHO.
Honestly, a shallow sync for the Mac is not something that has been requested often. And development would have to give their thoughts, if they wanted to share them.
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If some sort of dynamic database splitting were possible, it could be a viable solution. However, this would essentially be another form of on-demand functionality, which might not be necessary if users could instead designate segments of their database as “online only”.
Since this feature hasn’t been widely requested, I don’t expect it to be prioritized. That said, as my database grows, the lack of such functionality may eventually become a dealbreaker for me personally.
If spotlight search was enough i wouldnt need devon think to begin with. The purpose of using DT for me is to be able to search my database with advanced search operators, next to being able to organize, annotate and so on. Content in my databse is not at all considered clutter just because its not used as often.
iPhone Mirroring would let you search a database not on your Mac. You can drag files from DTTG to Finder, DT on Mac, etc. This is only a partial workaround, but I thought I’d mention it. Not trying to be dismissive.